The Most Expensive Keywords In Google Ads

The 20 keyword categories with the highest search volume and highest costs per click, thereby netting Google the most money, are:

Insurance Loans (example keywords include “consolidate graduate student loans” and “cheapest homeowner loans”)
Mortgage (example keywords include “refinanced second mortgages” and “remortgage with bad credit”)
Attorney (example keywords include “personal injury attorney” and “dui defense attorney”)
Credit (example keywords include “home equity line of credit” and “bad credit home buyer”)
Lawyer (“personal injury lawyer,” “criminal defense lawyer)
Donate (“car donation centers,” “donating a used car”)
Degree (“criminal justice degrees online,” “psychology bachelors degree online”)
Hosting (“hosting ms exchange,” “managed web hosting solution”)
Claim (“personal injury claim,” “accident claims no win no fee”)
Conference Call (“best conference call service,” “conference calls toll free”)
Trading (“cheap online trading,” “stock trades online”)
Software (“crm software programs,” “help desk software cheap”)
Recovery (“raid server data recovery,” “hard drive recovery laptop”)
Transfer (“zero apr balance transfer,” “credit card balance transfer zero interest”)
Gas/Electricity (“business electricity price comparison,” “switch gas and electricity suppliers”)
Classes (“criminal justice online classes,” “online classes business administration”)
Rehab (“alcohol rehab centers,” “crack rehab centers”)
Treatment (“mesothelioma treatment options,” “drug treatment centers”)
Cord Blood (“cordblood bank,” “store umbilical cord blood”)

Top section of this article is the work of Larry Kim and was first published at: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2011/07/18/most-expensive-google-adwords-keywords

End of copied article.

I think Larry’s research is good but like any data you have to be careful with what you think it means. For example we know that Attorney keywords are much more expensive per click than Insurance, Loans, and Mortgages. All of these are highly competitive and big money to Google but the value of a client, in general, is much lower in finance than legal. This report is really total revenue per keyword category not the cost per click but that headline probably is not as strong.

There is no doubt that this is a list of highly competitive and expensive keyword categories but the data is hidden in averages and categories. As anyone who has taken “How to lie with statistic 101” can tell you the best way to lie with numbers is to average them. On the other hand we have to average lots of things in this industry because dealing with all the details is just impossible. Within some of these categories like Attorney are words like mesothelioma that are being averaged in with lower value words in the same category. We have seen several examples of specific keywords with cost per click levels above $100 and in most cases they were worth the money. The truth is that the cost per click is market driven so it is set by the competition. Since the competition varies largely by market there is really no way to accurately report this data.

This type of analysis is impossible for anyone other than Google to perform because of the variables like quality score and market location. If we are looking for raw cost per click it is probably something generic like “mesothelioma” with a 1 quality score and a first position in NYC; that click is probably ridiculously expensive.

For a most expensive keyword list there are some missing items like Bail Bonds, which is a good example of an emergency service. These words are the type that the only position to target is #1 and that drives the costs up quickly. If you think about it on an emergency service like Bail Bonds, Emergency Plumbing Repair, Locksmith, or many others the only position worth having is the first one and that drives the cost up quickly. The other possible missing item here, based on total revenue, is Travel although the cost per click is less because of limited revenue per transaction.

Classifying keywords is at best difficult so I respect the work done here but if we are doing keyword categories I think Attorney (#4) Lawyer (#6) and Claim (#10) are really in the same category. Combining them would not move the results but it would bring legal much closer to the top of the list. I believe that legal keywords are expensive because lawyers are by nature highly competitive people. Add to that the high value of the clients in certain segments and you have the elements of a perfect storm in cost per click.

The most expensive keyword we have personally managed is Bail Bonds in a major metro market and the cost per click was well north of $100 but I have seen comments from others of legal class action words above $200.